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Overview

.vibeapp packages can be password-protected. Encryption prevents anyone without the password from inspecting the manifest, assets, or seed data. Encryption is implemented as an outer wrapper — the inner package structure is preserved intact. After decryption, the result is a normal .vibeapp archive.

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Encrypted package structure

An encrypted .vibeapp is a ZIP containing exactly two entries:
EntryContents
_vibe_encryption.jsonKDF and cipher metadata
_vibe_encrypted_payloadAES-256-GCM ciphertext (16-byte GCM tag appended)

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Encryption metadata

_vibe_encryption.json: 
{
  "version": 1,
  "cipher": "aes-256-gcm",
  "kdf": "argon2id",
  "kdf_params": {
    "m_cost": 65536,
    "t_cost": 3,
    "p_cost": 4,
    "salt": "<64 hex chars>"
  },
  "nonce": "<24 hex chars>"
}
KDF parameters follow the OWASP interactive profile: m=65536 (64 MiB), t=3, p=4. A fresh random 32-byte salt and 12-byte nonce are generated on every encryption call.

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CLI usage

# Create an encrypted package
vibe package vibe.yaml -o app.vibeapp --password-file secrets/pw.txt

# All commands accept the same flags for encrypted packages
vibe inspect app.vibeapp --password-file secrets/pw.txt
vibe verify  app.vibeapp --key signing.pub --password-file secrets/pw.txt
vibe sign    app.vibeapp --key signing.key --password-file secrets/pw.txt
vibe revert  app.vibeapp --password-file secrets/pw.txt

# Omit --password to be prompted interactively (most secure — not stored in shell history)
vibe inspect app.vibeapp

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Host app behaviour

  1. On open, the host detects _vibe_encryption.json and shows a password prompt
  2. The package is decrypted in memory — plaintext bytes are never written to disk
  3. On every auto-save and explicit save, the package is re-encrypted with the same password and a fresh random nonce
  4. The password is held in memory for the document session and cleared on close

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Security properties

  • Wrong password or corrupted ciphertext → decryption fails with a clear error; the app is never opened
  • Each encryption call produces unique ciphertext (fresh salt + nonce) — repeated saves are not linkable
  • Encryption is independent of signing — a package can be encrypted and signed

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Combination with signing

Encrypted packages can be signed. The signature covers the encrypted payload, not the plaintext. The verification flow decrypts first, then checks file digests on the inner package.